China denies plan to make 1,000-km tunnel to divert Brahmaputra waters to Xinjiang

HIGHLIGHTS

China has denied reports stating that it is building a tunnel to divert Brahmaputra water.

China said that it attaches great importance to cooperation over transborder water resources.

India and China have established a working group mechanism on cross-border resources.

The Three Gorges Dam | Photo: Reuters

HIGHLIGHTS

China has denied reports stating that it is building a tunnel to divert Brahmaputra water.

China said that it attaches great importance to cooperation over transborder water resources.

India and China have established a working group mechanism on cross-border resources.

China on Tuesday denied a media report claiming that Chinese engineers had put forward a plan to build a 1,000 km tunnel to divert the Brahmaputra's waters to Xinjiang, saying it was "a false report".The report, in Monday's South China Morning Post, claimed that Chinese engineers had in Ma

China on Tuesday denied a media report claiming that Chinese engineers had put forward a plan to build a 1,000 km tunnel to divert the Brahmaputra's waters to Xinjiang, saying it was "a false report".

The report, in Monday's South China Morning Post, claimed that Chinese engineers had in March submitted a plan for what would be the world's longest tunnel to carry 10-15 billion tons of water from the Brahmaputra in Tibet to arid Xinjiang. It said the plan was not yet approved amid concerns on the impact and on costs, estimated at 1 trillion Yuan or five times the cost of the Three Gorges Dam.

China's government on Tuesday denied the report, saying it was incorrect and that there was no such plan.

"This is a false report," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a briefing.

The plan would have ramifications for India and Bangladesh that lie downstream on the Brahmaputra. The SCMP report said the proposal entailed diverting water from the Yarlung Tsangpo, as the river is called in Tibet, at Sangri county which lies southeast of Lhasa, northwards to Xinjiang.

Hua said the report was untrue, and added that Beijing would take into account the interests of downstream countries.

"China will continue to attach great importance for cooperation on transborder water resources," Hua said.

China's dams in Xinjiang and in Yunnan have caused concern in neighbouring countries, from Kazakhstan to Laos and Thailand.

While its dams on the Brahmaputra are at an early stage, India and China have established a working group mechanism on cross-border resources, but this has had a limited mandate so far. In 2013, both sides agreed to allow Indian hydrological experts to travel to Tibet to monitor flows of the Brahmaputra. China also agreed that year to provide hydrological data during the flood season from May until October every year.

That cooperation worked from 2014 to 2016, but data wasn't submitted this year. Chinese officials said it was because of upgrading monitoring stations.

China has so far built one 510 MW dam at Zangmu on the river's upper reaches, and has begun work on three more dams on the river. Beijing says these are run of the river dams for hydro power generation and won't store large volumes of water, but some experts have said it could alter the river's ecosystem.

The Brahmaputra isn't entirely dependent on flows from China, with a large catchment area in Arunachal Pradesh in India. India has commissioned a study to ascertain the percentage of flows dependent on China, with varying estimates from experts.

The SCMP report said that another August project to build a 600 km water tunnel in Yunnan had already begun, and was being seen as a "demonstration project" for the Tibet tunnel. "In five to 10 years from now, the technology will be ready and the cost affordable, and the temptation of the benefits will be difficult to resist," Zhang Chuanqing, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics in Wuhan who is involved in the Yunnan plan, told the paper.

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